- Needs (50%): rent, bills, food, minimum debt payments£1,250.00
- Wants (30%): eating out, subscriptions, travel£750.00
- Savings and extra debt payments (20%)£500.00
The 50/30/20 split is a rule of thumb, not a standard. If needs alone take more than half your pay, the useful number is how far over you are.
UK prices read 29 October 2026. Default: an illustrative £2,500 of monthly take-home pay.
How it works
The calculator uses only figures each provider publishes. Where a fee is not published, the row says so and the figure leaves it out, which is why such a row ranks after every fully priced one. Introductory discounts are ignored because they end; tax is excluded because it depends on you.
This is a planning tool: it works on the numbers you enter and does not rank providers. The comparisons explain how their lists are ordered, and the full method is on how we rank.
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